Stop Arming Israel

Israel uses military force to maintain its oppression of Palestinians. It targets people with tear gas grenades, rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition, and carries out mass arrests, house demolitions and extrajudicial executions. This brutality lies at the heart of Israel’s systematic violations of Palestinian rights, amounting to serious breaches of international law, and even war crimes.

This violence and destruction is made possible by Israel’s trade in arms with dozens of countries, including the UK. In 2017 alone, the UK government granted more than £289 million worth of licenses for the export of arms and military technology to Israel.

On paper, the UK has strict rules and regulations about trading arms with regimes that systematically abuse human rights. In reality, legal loopholes and a lack of scrutiny enable the regular export of military technology and weaponry from the UK to repressive regimes around the world, including Israel.

The deadly trade of arms is facilitated not only by the UK government; UK banks and financial institutions participate in Israel’s militarised repression by holding shares in companies that export military technology and weapons to Israel, and by providing and facilitating loans to companies producing such military technology and weapons.

Banks like HSBC, with high street branches across the UK, are key players in the UK-Israel arms trade by providing financial services to companies that allow for these deadly arms sales. Far from being the removed outsiders that they claim to be, UK high street banks are profiting from the UK-Israel arms trade.